Platteville Middle School (2024)

  1. PLC Story
  2. PLC Practices
  3. Achievement Data
  4. Awards
  5. Resources

***PROMISING PRACTICES SCHOOL***

In the summer of 2018, the administrative team attended a PLC Institute in Madison, Wisconsin. Up until this time, our district wrestled with the four questions and experienced inconsistent results. The administrative team used the 2018-19 school year to build capacity by reading Learning by Doing, 3rd Edition. As 2018-19 continued, it was apparent that schedule changes were needed to provide time for staff collaboration.  Our administrative team scheduled community meetings to present reasons for weekly collaboration time around the four questions and three big ideas of a Professional Learning Community.  This provided our parents, community members, and school board members with the information needed to make an informed decision.  Ultimately, a calendar was adopted to provide 90 minutes of weekly collaboration on Wednesdays from 3:00 to 4:30pm.  The adoption of this calendar also meant that there was a modified schedule and early release of students every Wednesday.  

In April of 2019 and August 2019, Solution Tree Associate, Joe Cuddemi, provided professional development around the foundation of the PLC. A guiding coalition team was established which met twice monthly to support and provide leadership through the implementation. The configuration of this team was intentional to provide cross-content and grade level representation.  The guiding coalition provides support, goal setting, and creates a working liaison between staff and administration.  There is an application process to be on the guiding coalition and this document is provided in the resources tab.  Starting in the fall of 2019, grade-level teams were meeting during collaboration time with team-developed norms and formal agendas to provide focus.

The district participated in the Leading for Learning series that was sponsored by the Wisconsin Department of Instruction or DPI during the 2019-20 school year. This series included Solution Tree Associates Chris Jakicic, Angela Freese, Anthony Muhammad, and Mike Mattos. Although “Safer at Home” canceled the last session with Mike Mattos, the staff participated in all 3 sessions of Mike Mattos’ Mind the Gaps series. 

The mission and vision statements for the Platteville Middle School were created after gathering feedback from staff during the 2019-20 school year. The mission statement is as follows: To ensure that all students achieve at high levels and gain academic, behavioral, social and emotional skills that prepare them for a productive future.
The vision statement is as follows:  Platteville Middle School will be a proactive and responsive community that meets the academic, behavioral, social, and emotional needs of all students. Our committed staff will continuously and creatively provide a safe and collaborative learning environment where students achieve success in all areas.  The mission and vision statements are also provided to you in the resources tab in the Four Pillars document.  

Even with the challenges of the pandemic, the Middle School met virtually with Chris Jakicic in the fall of 2020 to learn more about assessment practices and common formative assessments.  During the 2020-21 school year, teams met virtually or in person following appropriate protocols. An example of assessment improvement throughout all content areas included teams evaluating assessments to ensure inclusion of various levels of DOK(Depth of Knowledge), choice in assessment, and collaboration with special education staff for appropriate modifications.  Assessments are now more effective in identifying skill deficits and areas for needed enrichment.

Paul Farmer joined the Middle School staff during August inservice in 2021 to provide the building training around RTI At Work Pyramid.  The staff acquired an understanding of Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III as well as the staff that are responsible for providing instruction, support, and extension at each level.  As teacher teams wrapped around students at Tier I and Tier II, they were also mindful of grouping students by SKILL and WILL.   Another transition during the 2021-22 school year was a shift in how our intervention block was supported.  The school adopted an "all hands on deck" philosophy by having staffing schedules aligned. This enabled all staff to provide meaningful support and teaching during the intervention period.  

The middle school staff participated in a book study of Lost and Found by Dr. Ross Greene.  This shifted the mindset for staff as “kids will do well if they can.”  The staff started to reflect on what’s getting in the way of the students not doing well.  How do we ask those questions and start to explore the completion or the ASLUP or Assessment of Lagging Skills or Unsolved Problems.  A team of teachers was created to provide leadership for student engagement and behaviors throughout the middle school.  This team meets twice a month for 30 minutes each meeting. 

Solution Tree Associate, Angie Freese, met with staff in the fall of 2022.  Due to several new hires and the transition out of the pandemic, it was deemed important to celebrate the efforts that had been accomplished up until this point, but to also take time to identify areas for possible improvement. Her presentation focused on best practices of identifying essential learning outcomes and assessment practices. 

In the summer of 2023, there were 5 teachers and the building leader who attended a PLC at Work Institute in Lincolnshire, IL.  This was an amazing experience that reenergized the staff and catapulted them into the start of the school year.  The staff members and building leader used what they learned during presentations throughout August Inservice and during the school year.  Since the building leader was new to the building and there were several new hires, there were many opportunities to recalibrate practices in place.  One such activity was staff taking standards and unwrapping them into learning targets or I CAN statements.  A document was also created where all teams listed their ELOs by grade level or content area.  Please reference the resources tab for examples of the Essential Learning Outcomes or ELO documents.  

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

Staff members were first exposed to identifying essential learning outcomes with Joe Cuddemi during his presentations in 2019.  Not only did teams work together to identify the essential learning outcomes, they also learned how to unwrap them into learning targets or I CAN statements.  

At the infancy of our collaboration time, staff were being asked to fill out multiple forms and they weren’t understanding the “why” behind this practice. When our school met with Solution Tree Associate, Chris Jakicic, during the 2020-21 school year the idea of creating and completing a "Pacing Calendar" was presented. The guiding coalition identified what information would be included in each column.  Then the guiding coalition collected input from staff and a finished product was created with input from all staff.  The pacing calendar is sometimes given the comparison to a staff that wins the lottery.  If a staff member wins the lottery and they chose not to teach anymore, then another professional with the appropriate licensure could utilize this pacing guide to teach from as it provides the ELOs, learning targets, and formative assessments for the units of instruction throughout the school year.  The practice of using a pacing calendar replaced the practice of staff members filling out separate forms for ELOs, Learning Targets, and Assessments.  It was a “one stop shop” type of resource. 

As stated in the PLC story, there has been time devoted to staff members identifying and unwrapping essential learning outcomes with the new building leader during the 2023-24 school year.  Although this work is never finished and it will be continually updated, the staff have answered question 1 and our guaranteed and viable curriculum is shared in the resources tab as those pacing guide documents.  Please review the ELO and pacing guide examples in the resources tab.

 

2. Creating systems of intervention to provide students with additional time and support for learning.

The middle school master schedule was adjusted in 2013 to have an intervention time and this time was called, “PRIDE” time. The students were initially grouped by using benchmark data from the MAP assessment and teacher observation and recommendations. In 2020-21, the staff was provided professional development around the use of common formative assessments by Chris Jakicic, and this data was used to inform PRIDE time group placements for all learners. During the 2021-22 school year, the schedule was adjusted so that all staff were available during PRIDE time and this “all hands on deck” philosophy was integral to supporting student needs. Students that demonstrated need for remediation were provided focussed instruction from qualified staff, which included reteaching, use of level appropriate text, and preteaching.  Some students demonstrated a need for motivation or behavior interventions. Qualified staff members were matched with students that required various interventions based on these needs so they could develop a skills set that would promote academic progress.

Students that were ready for Enrichment in academic areas of math and reading were provided with extension instruction, projects, and integrated learning activities.

 

3. Building teacher capacity to work as members of high performing collaborative teams that focus efforts on improved learning for all students.

The Platteville Middle School collaborative teams, guiding coalition members, and administration continue to build capacity in many ways.  Those methods include book studies, access to Global PD teams, site visits, and continued professional development on data review and a focus on results.  

The administrative and teacher teams built capacity by engaging in book studies.  Learning by Doing, 3rd Edition, was read by the admin team during the 2018-19 school year and the professional staff completed this book study throughout the 2019-20 school year.  The reading of this book is a must if you are embarking on the PLC journey as this provides the foundational information needed to provide the leadership through these changes.  During 2020-21, efforts were focused around providing virtual learning and other challenges of the pandemic.  Taking Action was the book study for admin and staff during the 2021-22 school year.  The staff acquired an understanding of Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III as well as the staff that are responsible for providing instruction, support, and extension at each level.  As teacher teams wrapped around students at Tier I and Tier II, they were also mindful of grouping students by SKILL and WILL.  During the 2022-23 school year, a group of teachers read the book, Singletons in a PLC at Work, and this provided singletons with an understanding of the on-ramps for collaboration as well as the use of a critical friend when reviewing formative assessment data.  

The members of the guiding coalition and admin team were also provided access to Global PD (now Global PD Teams).  This resource is critical to the continued growth of your professional learning community.  There are videos that are routinely shared by the guiding coalition during collaboration time to build capacity for the entire building.  A recent example of a video used would be Analyzing Student Data by Sharon V. Kramer.  This assisted our staff to be more intentional about grouping students for specific reasons and to honor the learning.  This was helpful for our staff to sort the data based on the student errors or unfinished learning and to re-teach the specific skill that they haven’t demonstrated mastery in yet.  

Another way for our collaborative teams to focus their efforts on improving student learning is to see other Nationally Recognized PLC Schools in action.  During the 2022-23 school year, two different teams traveled to Onalaska Middle School on separate occasions to see their teams in action as well as to attend a guiding coalition meeting.  A trip to the Stanley-Boyd school district also took place in 2023 and this was helpful for our staff to see a district that was smaller in size tackle some of the questions on how to support student learning in a professional learning community.  If you are on this PLC journey, please use the PLC locator as a resource.  Even if you aren’t able to visit a school in person, you can connect with their staff to learn more about their journey.  

A final example of how teams are focused on improving their efforts for student learning is the use of data.  Not only are teams reviewing the formative assessment data during weekly collaboration time, they are reviewing summative assessment data to identify trends in overall student performance as well as performance of student subgroups.  Starting in the summer of 2022, the admin team started this intentional review of summative assessment data with Eric Larsen, Data Analyst from CESA#6.  This summative assessment data was shared during August inservice and throughout the year with mixed results during 2022-23.  During the summer of 2023, the guiding coalition members were included with these data summer data meetings and this step has fostered many continued data conversations during the school year.  The plan for the summer of 2024 is to have this data conversation during August inservice for all staff to hear the same message from Eric Larsen.  Then the guiding coalition and admin team can continue to support the data conversations as they start to be woven into collaboration time on a consistent basis.

Platteville Middle School was awarded the Blue Ribbon School Award in 2016.

Platteville Middle School received a "Bronze Level" for the Wisconsin PBIS Network in 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19.  

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